We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Di Blasio is NOT a lesson New Yorkers need to learn. Serpico, however, IS. The Big Crapple pig sty is EVERY BIT AS FOUL now as it was in the late 60s. Clean out that pig sty, and Di Blasio would not be a problem.

The pope is no more likely to listen to Venezuela's bishops than he is to listen to Bishop Athanasius Schneider or Cardinal Burke. The Catholic Church has its OWN Nobama problem.

Once again, thank Shrub II for the "Religion of Peace" bullshit. He and the REST of the Rove Republican swill (including Jeb! and Marco and Fat Boy and the REST of the potential GOP candidates for POTUS in 2016) are nothing more than the OTHER end of the same steaming turd as the Democrats. We will NOT "vote our way out" of this sewer.

Not as it is currently constituted. I pretty much agree with Mirengoff's analysis of the situation. I think it is on the one hand a war between civilizations. I think Boot misses the history of Muslim aggression against non Muslims and even more that the basis for it is found in the Koran. So, in a real sense, the 'extremists' Boot talks about are not extremists. They are following a 'valid' time-honored interpretation of the Koran. For this reason, the West should assist the "religion of peace" Muslims in defeating the "religion of war" Muslims on the battlefield. But he West should also defeat the "ROW" Muslims regardless of whether the "ROP" Muslims are involved.

At the same time, I agree with some of Boot's analysis of the solution to the problem. An ideological "war" within Islam has to be waged. It should be waged by the ROP Muslims and hopefully a Muslim Reformation can occur where the violent, backward, intolerant dictates are exorcised. This leaves a large "official" Muslim religion and a smaller discredited, and now truly 'extremist' religion.

I believe both of these wars need to be waged. I am afraid they will both be bloody.

While I am not holding my breath on the reformation I'd like to see, I see some reason for hope. Egypt's president Sisi's speech "top Islamic authorities" (http://spectator.org/articles/61428/new-year-egypt-significance-president-sisis-speech). And then there is the Muslim mayor of Rotterdam telling Muslims who do not appreciate the freedoms of Western society to f**k off (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2907941/Moroccan-born-mayor-Rotterdam-tells-fellow-Muslims-not-appreciate-freedoms-living-West-pack-bags-f-live-TV.html).

I started this post thinking it was kind of funny. I liked the hed — “Is the White House a ‘Sleeper Cell’?” It reminded me of, um… Charlie Hebdo. But actually it’s not so funny. And it’s not impossible. We know something close already happened during the communist era (Alger Hiss), and the Israelis famously planted an agent, Eli Cohen, at the highest echelons of the Syrian government until he was caught via the KGB and hanged in the central square of Damascus. They say it was Cohen’s reports that were responsible for the rapid Israeli success against the Syrians in the Six-Day War.

But a “sleeper cell” in the White House? It would certainly explain Obama’s not going to France, which was a decision that hurt the USA, hurt the effort against Islamic terror and hurt the president’s already tarnished reputation into the bargain. There are so many other things that the existence of a White House “sleeper cell” would explain that I couldn’t even begin to count them. And as you know, a cell doesn’t have to be violent to be active. There are many ways to do damage.

But who would be a member of this cell? Is it one or all of them? Well that, I am sorry to say, I cannot tell you. I do not have the proper clearance. You are, however, free to guess. Who would stop you?"

The irony in the opening piece about the arts is overwhelming. Dude seems to be basically bemoaning the fact that the record labels and publishing companies that leeched off the folks actually creating the arts for years are struggling to survive in the new market place.

The "religion of peace" meme is more about fear of Islam and PC correctness. There were those in the late 30's who were trying to convince the world that if we just let Hitler take back what was once Germany then they would become peaceful again. But there is a real issue around lumping all muslims together and politicians and pundits do need to make it clear that we are not at war with all muslims. They used that phrase, "religion of peace" in part to do just that. To tell peaceful muslims that we want to ally with them. But the other side of that partnership never really came about. There are a handful of moderate muslims who do stand up and condemn radical Islam but most stay quiet. Many are simply afraid to speak up, as well they should be. But the majority of "moderate muslims" are not all that angry with the steady increase in strength of Islam throughout the world and they are not all that unhappy with what is going on. They themselves cannot imagine strapping on a bomb or picking up an AK47 to commit terrorist acts but they recognize that the reach and power of Islam is growing and they like that. In their own way most moderate muslims support the results if not the methods of the radicals. This becomes a very tough problem in the war on terror or war on radical Islam. At some point the moderates will have to declare themselves to be opposed to the radicals in their religion or be assumed to be in support of the radicals. Most non-muslims are not ready to do that yet. Most people on earth have had relative peace for their entire lifetime and do not want to contemplate a world wide war. What it will take to unify opinion on this is "the big one". That will probably be a terrorist group acquiring a nuclear bomb from Afghanistan, North Korea, the Russian mob, Iran, etc. and using it in a large Western city like Paris or London or New York City. Until that happens most Westerners are loathe to talk about massive attacks on civilians and terrorist alike and most moderate muslims will continue to stay quiet and not take sides. All of this is not so different from where the world found itself in 1939 with the Nazis.

Microaggressions on campus; BOO HOO! There's a macroaggression. And white women are microagressed by saying "The authors claim these students [female and minority] are victims of microaggresions and that universities have a racist and sexist environment."

My cousin and her husband make their living as freelancers in the arts, and as such have plenty of contact with other artists. My cousin informs me that a lot of artists have inherited wealth which enables them to produce art without having to earn a living with it.

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